A simple call to her sister took Ilona's thoughts far, far away, the home she could never go back to, the face she could never see again, and the fork in the road that she had missed no longer had the right to choose again.

In the darkness of the night, ravens hovered out of the window with their wings flapped, their scarlet bird's eyes watching what was happening inside the castle, their feathers stretching their necks and making a long "ah-" call.

The birdsong seeped into the depths of her soul, like a wake-up call from reality, and the long chime instantly brought Ilona's consciousness back to the count's bedroom, and she blinked her eyes, shaking the tears from the corners of her eyes, and looked at Cesare, who was gradually wrapped in mycelium beneath her, as if she had made the right decision.

Can...... The hands holding the sword seemed to be petrified, and with all the strength of their strength they could only make their arms tremble violently, and they were unable to stab Cesare in the heart.

Ilona's self-consciousness repeatedly warned herself that her sister did not belong to her, that her own brother was dead, from the sword in her hands...... She is not wrong, the infected are incurable, and obliteration is equivalent to their salvation.

But the courage it takes to recognize this reality is far greater than the strength she has learned over the years.

Just as Ilona was pressuring herself to become more cold-blooded, she seemed to have forgotten that there was another swordsman in this room.

Anya slammed her shoulder into Ilona's body, knocking the silver-haired girl away from Cesare and striking her wrist with precision and swiftness with the hilt of her sword.

The sudden pain and instinctive nerve reflexes forced her fingers to release the weapon.

The metal blade fell to the smooth floor with a "ding" sound, and Ilona's sword fell to the ground and was trampled on by Anya's boots in an instant, not giving Ilona any chance to retrieve the weapon.

Ilona shook her sore wrist to make sure it didn't hurt the bones, and then hurriedly wiped the tears from her face with her cuffs.

"Give me back the sword!"

She cried out in annoyance, the double bruise in her heart and body made the silver-haired girl look embarrassed and pitiful, helplessly holding her aching arm for the last stubbornness.

"No." Anya replied briskly with a smile, kicking the silver sword out with a slight force under her feet, and the blade slid down the ground into the gap under the bed next to her.

The floor of the bed was not high enough from the ground for an arm to reach into, and it would have taken some time to get the sword out.

Ilona was anxious and angry, and her slightly open mouth was about to say something, but was interrupted by Anya's direct opening.

"The swordsmanship is good, and he is already much better than those boys in the city."

Anya first smiled and bowed in the posture of a victor, and when she straightened up again, the girl's expression was completely devoid of the smile she had just had, and Anya's eyes were serious and angry at Ilona's behavior that had just tried to hurt Cesare.

"But I repeat it again...... As long as I'm alive, don't even think about touching Cesare. ”

At this moment, Cesare, who had fallen to the ground in a dazzled consciousness, suddenly moved his arm, and although the mycelium was small, it was still noticed by the two nervous girls.

The floor shook slightly, and black mycelium grew along Cesare's side like a pool of blood that was gradually spreading.

"Cesare ......?" Anya was about to get closer to the past when she was suddenly stopped by her opponent Ilona.

"Stay away from him! That thing isn't Cesare anymore......"

As Ilona had said, Cesare's young body stiffened and relaxed in agony, screaming in pain as if his body was about to be torn apart.

The skin of his body took on an ominous black-purple color, and the surface was covered with dense tiny hyphae.

The limbs also became deformed and twisted by the spread of the infection, and the face was also pulled by the mycelium into the appearance of a beast.

Every muscle in Cesare's body struggled meaninglessly, writhing his joints and rolling on the floor, trying to get up again and again.

And in the next instant, countless mycelium burst out of Cesare's body, converging into nightmarish tentacles and waving their limbs around the room, like a group of evil guards guarding the parasitic host to complete the mutation.

Cesare's screams slowly weakened in the process, and he was finally drowned in a sea of mycelium.

Both Anya and Ilona could only retreat in the face of the terrible sight, unable to get even half a step closer to Cesare.

Anya was trying to seize a gap to get to Cesare, but suddenly a thick mycelium tentacle slammed down on the top of her head, dodging in time as the tentacle struck a dent in the floor.

If a person receives this blow to the head, it is estimated that it will immediately turn into a puddle of mud.

"It's too late......" Ilona frowned, watching the disaster strike, but there was nothing she could do.

As if the dam had reached the limit of its collapse, Cesare's own struggle with the infection came to an end, and the mycelium won the final victory, just like the rest of the infected.

The mycelium that filled the room swirled up and down like a tidal wave, and at the same moment suddenly gathered back into Cesare's body.

The mycelium-condensed tentacles vanished, forming a tight-fitting layer of armor that tightly covered Cesare's body, completely transforming him into a mycelial monster.

Without waiting for the two girls to react, Cesare stood slowly on his forelimbs on the ground like a wolf, his hind legs slowly standing, the mycelium on his body shining faintly in the moonlight like the hair of a wild beast, and his eyes as red as if they were overflowing with blood.

Glaring at Anya and Ilona like strangers with a murderous gaze, he lowered his head and let out a menacing roar.

Bent over, his ears sharpened, his cracked mouth slightly open to reveal sharp fangs.

At this moment, the door to the room was suddenly slammed open, and Mr. Indel stood nervously outside the door, followed by several black-clad men from the crows.

Even though they were already witchers who had experienced countless battles with monsters, they couldn't help but be surprised when they saw the scene inside the house.

Cesare, who had turned into a monster, roared at the uninvited guests, and his desolate voice echoed through the castle, before he rushed to the floor-to-ceiling windows of his room, "Bang! The glass was shattered and he rushed out.

The shards of glass and the splashes of mycelium mixed together and scattered on the ground.

"Cesare!" At the moment when Cesare jumped out of the window, Anya rushed to the shattered glass without any extra thought, and saw that she was running in the wrong direction, and Ilona yelled incomprehensibly. "What are you going to do? Are you crazy! ”